Statistics Agency halts census mapping due to COVID-19
The Namibia Statistics Agency this week announced that the census mapping exercise will be halted until 14 April, or at least until the COVID-19 situation around stabilizes.
The Agency said in a statement, halting this activity is necessitated by the fact that mapping field staff is expected to visit numerous houses for face to face interviews, which may increase the risk of the mapping staff as well as for the household members responding to the survey.
The purpose of census mapping is to demarcate the entire Namibia into uniquely defined units of enumeration areas, which provide an accurate national geographic frame to conduct censuses which in this case is the upcoming 2021 Census.
On the progress of the work so far, census mapping has been completed in the Zambezi Region and the team is currently busy with the Khomas area where we have already completed 4 rounds.
The halting of the census mapping will delay the envisage completion date of the census mapping, however the Agency is looking at ways to strengthen field teams to ensure the census mapping is completed well in time for the main census enumeration.
Iipumbu Sakaria, spokesperson for the Agency gave certainty that they will be able to implement the Census Pilot in August 2020 with sufficient number of enumeration areas to test all the census tools and methodologies. The Main Census Enumeration is scheduled to start on 29 August 2021,which is the Census Reference Night. The Main Census Enumeration data collection is for the period 29 August 2021 to end of September 2021.
“We therefore want to ensure the nation that census mapping and the entire census exercise is on track, funds and logistics are being managed prudently and we look forward to the nations’ cooperation and support once we come to your household after the coronavirus measures are suspended,” Sakaria said.
